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About The Oath

A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction

From the moment Chief Justice Roberts botched Barack Obama’s oath of office, the relationship between the Court and the White House has been a fraught one. Grappling with issues as diverse as campaign finance, abortion, and the right to bear arms, the Roberts court has put itself squarely at the center of American political life. Jeffrey Toobin brilliantly portrays key personalities and cases and shows how the President was fatally slow to realize the importance of the judicial branch to his agenda. Combining incisive legal analysis with riveting insider details, The Oath is an essential guide to understanding the Supreme Court of our interesting times.

About The Oath

From the prizewinning author of The Nine, a gripping insider’s account of the momentous ideological war between the John Roberts Supreme Court and the Obama administration.

From the moment John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States, blundered through the Oath of Office at Barack Obama’s inauguration, the relationship between the Supreme Court and the White House has been confrontational. Both men are young, brilliant, charismatic, charming, determined to change the course of the nation—and completely at odds on almost every major constitutional issue. One is radical; one essentially conservative. The surprise is that Obama is the conservative—a believer in incremental change, compromise, and pragmatism over ideology. Roberts—and his allies on the Court—seek to overturn decades of precedent: in short, to undo the ultimate victory FDR achieved in the New Deal. This ideological war will crescendo during the 2011-2012 term, in which several landmark cases are on the Court’s docket—most crucially, a challenge to Obama’s controversial health-care legislation. With four new justices joining the Court in just five years, including Obama’s appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, this is a dramatically—and historically—different Supreme Court, playing for the highest of stakes. No one is better positioned to chronicle this dramatic tale than Jeffrey Toobin, whose prize-winning bestseller The Nine laid bare the inner workings and conflicts of the Court in meticulous and entertaining detail. As the nation prepares to vote for President in 2012, the future of the Supreme Court will also be on the ballot.

About The Oath

From the prizewinning author of The Nine, a gripping insider’s account of the momentous ideological war between the John Roberts Supreme Court and the Obama administration.

From the moment John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States, blundered through the Oath of Office at Barack Obama’s inauguration, the relationship between the Supreme Court and the White House has been confrontational. Both men are young, brilliant, charismatic, charming, determined to change the course of the nation—and completely at odds on almost every major constitutional issue. One is radical; one essentially conservative. The surprise is that Obama is the conservative—a believer in incremental change, compromise, and pragmatism over ideology. Roberts—and his allies on the Court—seek to overturn decades of precedent: in short, to undo the ultimate victory FDR achieved in the New Deal. This ideological war will crescendo during the 2011-2012 term, in which several landmark cases are on the Court’s docket—most crucially, a challenge to Obama’s controversial health-care legislation. With four new justices joining the Court in just five years, including Obama’s appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, this is a dramatically—and historically—different Supreme Court, playing for the highest of stakes. No one is better positioned to chronicle this dramatic tale than Jeffrey Toobin, whose prize-winning bestseller The Nine laid bare the inner workings and conflicts of the Court in meticulous and entertaining detail. As the nation prepares to vote for President in 2012, the future of the Supreme Court will also be on the ballot.

About The Oath

From the prizewinning author of The Nine, a gripping insider’s account of the momentous ideological war between the John Roberts Supreme Court and the Obama administration.

From the moment John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States, blundered through the Oath of Office at Barack Obama’s inauguration, the relationship between the Supreme Court and the White House has been confrontational. Both men are young, brilliant, charismatic, charming, determined to change the course of the nation—and completely at odds on almost every major constitutional issue. One is radical; one essentially conservative. The surprise is that Obama is the conservative—a believer in incremental change, compromise, and pragmatism over ideology. Roberts—and his allies on the Court—seek to overturn decades of precedent: in short, to undo the ultimate victory FDR achieved in the New Deal. This ideological war will crescendo during the 2011-2012 term, in which several landmark cases are on the Court’s docket—most crucially, a challenge to Obama’s controversial health-care legislation. With four new justices joining the Court in just five years, including Obama’s appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, this is a dramatically—and historically—different Supreme Court, playing for the highest of stakes. No one is better positioned to chronicle this dramatic tale than Jeffrey Toobin, whose prize-winning bestseller The Nine laid bare the inner workings and conflicts of the Court in meticulous and entertaining detail. As the nation prepares to vote for President in 2012, the future of the Supreme Court will also be on the ballot.

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Praise

“Toobin is one of the most talented reporters covering American law.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Deeply versed in Supreme Court lore and legal subtlety, [Toobin] draws upon first-hand interviews with the justices and their clerks in crafting an anxious tale of the Roberts court, casting its major rulings as looming symbols of judicial philosophy. . . . A polished and thoughtful dissection.” —USA Today

“A compelling narrative of the early years of the Roberts court. . . . The many pleasures of The Oath come . . . from human details about the justices and their interactions with the White House.” —The Washington Post

“Anyone fascinated by the inner workings of the highest court in the land will be delighted.” —The Huffington Post

“Not until scholars a generation hence gain access to the justices’ papers are we likely to have a more useful, or more readable, picture of this oddly assorted group of judges at this moment in history.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A worthy successor to The Nine, The Oath is a work of probity, intelligence and exceptional reporting.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Might . . . be viewed eventually as the best book about the court during the opening half-decade of John Roberts’ reign as chief justice. . . . Toobin does his job well.” —The Seattle Times

“Court watchers, serious and occasional, will find Toobin’s explanation of the issues at stake . . . before the Roberts court well worth their time.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Lucid, lively and astute. . . . Toobin has the chops (and the contacts) to take readers inside the court.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“For political, and governmental, junkies. . . . Fall[s] into the Robert Caro–Lyndon Johnson category. . . . Reminds us that it is the interplay between different personalities and agendas that more than any scholarly argument or historical text is often at the heart of the laws we live with.” —The Boston Globe

“A reliable and astute guide through the thicket of legalese.” —The Miami Herald

“Toobin [is] a rare authority who knows how to write. . . . This is, in short, a book suitable for reading in the study or while sprawled at the beach.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“A revealing look at the ideological battle between the White House and the Supreme Court.” —Booklist (starred review)

“A skillful probing of the often-discordant relationship between the president and the Supreme Court. . . . Shrewd and elucidating.” —Kirkus Reviews

About Jeffrey Toobin

JEFFREY TOOBIN is the bestselling author of The Oath, The Nine, Too Close to Call,A Vast Conspiracy, and The Run of His Life, which was made into the critically acclaimed FX series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. He is a staff writer… More about Jeffrey Toobin

About Jeffrey Toobin

JEFFREY TOOBIN is the bestselling author of The Oath, The Nine, Too Close to Call,A Vast Conspiracy, and The Run of His Life, which was made into the critically acclaimed FX series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. He is a staff writer… More about Jeffrey Toobin

About Jeffrey Toobin

JEFFREY TOOBIN is the bestselling author of The Oath, The Nine, Too Close to Call,A Vast Conspiracy, and The Run of His Life, which was made into the critically acclaimed FX series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. He is a staff writer… More about Jeffrey Toobin

About Jeffrey Toobin

JEFFREY TOOBIN is the bestselling author of The Oath, The Nine, Too Close to Call,A Vast Conspiracy, and The Run of His Life, which was made into the critically acclaimed FX series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. He is a staff writer… More about Jeffrey Toobin